


Dreams Pull Him Down

by matrixrefugee



Category: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 20:04:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18556876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: Albert can't always shake the memories of what could have happened in the Count's chamber of wonders.





	Dreams Pull Him Down

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[fic_promptly](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/)'s [Gankutsuou, Albert, dreams of drowning](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/9184.html?thread=551136#cmt551136)

Sometimes Albert went for weeks without the dreams, other times, the same dreams come back to haunt him every night, for a week on end. This left him dreading the night and the darkness, the sun sinking and the light fading before giving way to twilight, which in turn gave way to the night, like the tide creeping up the planes of the shore, relentlessly, swallowing up the shoreline.

In the dreams, he is again falling off the pirate ship in the Count's chambers of wonders, falling into the salty water below, plunging into the depths, holding a last breath trapped in his lungs. He fights to return to the surface, reaching for the sun which retreats all the more, the light dimming as the undertow pulls him down.... down.... down... into the growing darkness of the deep.

In the middle of his struggle, he realizes that something has started to slither about his ankles. He tries to kick it away, but it seizes his ankle in a vise-grip. He tries again, beating at it with the foot still free, but the thing below drags on him, pulling him down, faster now, toward a watery grave that no doubt awaits him.

When he forces his gaze down to see what has a hold of him, he looks down into three pairs of violet eyes, glowing with a fierce light, in a black mask of a face, the face of the same beast that had possessed the Count. And now, in the dream, it has a hold of him.

In the dream, Albert struggles to escape its grip, crying out even though the dark waters rush into his mouth and lungs, filling them with the burning salt water till his chest aches, ready to burst. Bubbles rise up to the surface, the signs of his impotent howls smothered in the water --

Till he awakens, tangled in the bedcovers, snaked about his ankles, his face dripping with his cold, briny sweat...


End file.
